Washington - Because Pixar's track record with successful animated shorts is as impressive as its feature-film trophy case, word of each new short merits high anticipation and expectation.
So it is with news that Bao, an eight-minute short about an "empty-nesting Chinese mom," will screen at Tribeca Film Festival next month, according to the event's site, before running in theatres in June ahead of The Incredibles 2.
The scant details so far about the Bao story: A Chinese woman gets "another chance at motherhood" when one of her wee dumplings "springs to life" - a type of animated magic between parent and creation that summons thoughts of Pinocchio. But in Bao, the mother must cope with "the bittersweet revelation that nothing stays cute and small forever."
undefinedBao director is Domee Shi, whose first Pixar credit was as a story artist on Pete Docter's Inside Out, and her résumé now includes the forthcoming Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4. Shi, who began her Pixar internship in 2011, was born in China before her family moved to Toronto when she was 2, according to the Disney Blog.